Russia Denounces Presence of Western Military Trainers in Ukraine

Reports came out last week that France might send troops to Kyiv to help with training. Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said that any French military instructors in Ukraine could be targets for Russian forces. This happened during Lavrov's visit to Africa, where some countries are getting closer to Moscow because they are unhappy with the west. Lavrov talked about this at a news conference with the Republic of Congo’s foreign minister, Jean Claude Gakosso. Lavrov mentioned that he thinks French instructors are already in Ukraine to train their troops. In response, the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that these instructors could be targeted by Russian forces, no matter if they are French or not. However, France's president, Emmanuel Macron, chose not to comment on these reports. He said he would talk more about France's support during the 80th anniversary of D-day later in the week. Macron's office did not respond to Lavrov and Peskov's statements. Lavrov has been visiting Africa a lot lately as Russia tries to get more support because of the war in Ukraine. Some African countries are getting frustrated with their usual western partners like France and the United States. Instead, they are turning to Russia for help against Islamic insurgencies. Lavrov also criticized an upcoming peace conference about Ukraine that Russia was not invited to. He said the conference in Switzerland is not important and is just trying to keep an anti-Russian group together. Later, Lavrov arrived in Burkina Faso's capital city, Ouagadougou, and was set to meet the country's leader, Ibrahim Traoré, who came to power after a military coup in 2022.